Eliza Dushku has left Hollywood, and where she has gone is rather more remarkable than where she has been.
The actress, now 43, is certified as a psychedelic-assisted therapist. She holds a master’s degree in counselling and clinical mental health from a Boston institution, and is actively using the money she earned as an actress to fund medical research and clinical trials in the field. The work is based in Massachusetts, where she now lives with her husband and their two young sons.
She has been off screen since 2017. Not semi-retired — actually gone. Her last role was a TV film called The Saint, which came just before she accepted a position as co-lead on Bull, a CBS drama. That lasted approximately one week. In her first week on set, she says, she was subjected to repeated sexual harassment by her co-star Michael Weatherly. When she reported it, she was let go. CBS settled with her for $9.5 million. Weatherly issued a qualified apology. The industry moved on in the way industries tend to.
Dushku did not go back to it.
What she did instead was begin her own recovery. She has spoken about being diagnosed with PTSD — something that predates the Bull situation, rooted in experiences she has discussed publicly over the years. She began psychedelic-assisted therapy herself roughly seven years ago, and says the experience was transformative. She went on to study it formally, qualify in it, and is now both a practitioner and a funder of clinical research into the field. She celebrated sixteen years of sobriety in November 2024.
Faith Lehane, the character she played for eight years across Buffy and Angel, was a young woman dealing with severe trauma through violence, self-destruction, and isolation — someone who eventually, with considerable difficulty, found a different way to live. Dushku has said publicly that her new career feels like her “real purpose.” One can see why the parallel might feel significant to her.
She has not ruled out returning to acting — she has simply not prioritised it. There are certainly people who would watch anything she chose to do. But what she is building in Boston, from the sound of it, is not a gap between projects. It is what comes next.
It suits her, from this distance. Rather well.
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